The Well

Not without its faults

There is a lot of competition in the gastro-pub space and while The Well was good, it was certainly not without its faults. Full marks for atmosphere: lovely building, well furnished, a good noise level and friendly staff. However, the three areas where there was some disappointment (and shared by the group of four of us who dined there) were as follows: the drink, food and price, all fairly crucial elements in assessing the merits of a dining location. In terms of drink, if you call yourself a pub (rather than a restaurant), then surely more than one real ale on tap (admittedly the one they had was a good one – Jugged Hare) ought to be possible. Next, in terms of the food, an extensive menu based around comfort food with a slight twist seems to be the premise. Our starters were beautifully presented on small wooden boards, but what they gained in presentation, they lost in terms of quantity, i.e. they were very small. My crisp calves brains were very tasty, although rather curiously battered, but there were just four pieces. Similarly, those of my dining comrades who went for the shrimp and bacon croquettes received just two of these. At least for the fourth member in our group, his half pint of prawns was exactly that. Onto the mains and the portions were certainly much better-sized. I had no complaints about my braised rabbit leg with grilled gem, peas, bacon and mustard sauce. The meat was beautifully succulent and came off the bone well; the accompaniments were well matched and the mustard sauce not overpowering. However, there was less praise from my comrades for the Cumbrian rare bread rib of beef. This takes me on to the final point, price: for £24 (in a pub), you have to expect a seriously good piece of meat, and sadly it did not seem to live up to the billing. Would I return, despite these criticisms? Yes, but as much as anything because we did have a good time, albeit fuelled by the beer. And, we were under-charged (making up for the egregiously priced beef), although not all diners may find themselves so lucky in this latter respect.

We went to The Well on the 50% off food offer for a weekday lunch. With the offer it was fantastic value, food was high quality and well presented and our group of 6 were dealt with attentively by friendly staff. Highly recommended.

This is a lovely little pub. Very good drinks and food, and the service is generally very good too. Especially nice this time of year when they open up the doors and windows.

Excellent little gastropub in Clerkenwell. Really good for a late long business lunch or just a quiet place to have drink and do some reading as they have some big tables and lots of large windows so it stays bright. The food is fantastic too, and they have a great drinks selection. Lots of outside seating too, which is good just about now.

Great beers, wines, cocktails, and juices – whatever you're in the mood for. I like the atmosphere at The Well very much too – jovial and relaxed. The food is very good too, but I normally frequent it for drinks.

Love this place! Probably the best pub in Clerkenwell. Great place for dinner after a long days work. Great food and wine, and they are open a bit later if it turns into a late one. One of my friends from work also had a birthday party here, and we had the downstairs for ourselves, which was good considering our dancing was criminal…

This is a really nice laid back pub. Met a mate here recently, and had a nice evening sat outside chatting over a few pints. Nice non-hectic place to go after work.

A little overpriced but always worth it for a long lunch or to wind down after work. The staff have always been really freindly and are always one step ahead of you when it comes to replenishing the empties. Typically serving hearty classics, the menu is a winning recipe of rustic dishes and british favourites.
If the new cocktail night dowstairs in the deapths of the well is not to your taste (like me), then head for the outdoor tables with a bottle on ice – always a winner!

This is basically not a restaurant and I didn't really get the impression that it really deserves to be called a ‘gastropub’ either. If you are expecting to come in here and have a nice meal for two then probably best not to bother with this place. The food sounds exotic when you read the menu but I didn't feel confident that the food would be prepared on the premises and that it was actually a bit of a microwave job. Possibly with a bit of fresh garnish to brighten it up.

The building itself is more like a traditional suburban pub that has been converted into a trendy ‘gastropub’ but the conversion hasn't gone well. It still feels like a pub but the functional pub furniture has been removed and replaced with some rickety old tables and miss-matching chairs to try and give it a ‘casual’ & ‘homely’ feeling. Really, because it's only a ‘half-job’ – you end up thinking to yourself, “Oh yeah, I see what you've done here”

When we visited the staff were standing in our faces and asking questions about what we were doing and suggested that we might be here for a bit of grub. Fair enough, cheeky chappy… but after this we were sat at a very wobbly table that rocked about 3 inches in each direction and this table was right next to the bar where idle staff were standing and looking down at us. It was also bordered to the thoroughfare, so unless you keep your arms tucked in then they will be rubbing off the staff as they pass to and from the kitchen – which is just a room behind the bar and not really a proper kitchen.

What this place is excellent for is if you arrive as a big group of people and you just want to order a round of side-orders for the table. i.e. couple of bowls of chips, ect, ect… but you can do this at any pub, so even on this point as this place is a compromise of a traditional pub you are not getting what would be expected. To actually sit down and eat a proper 3-course meal here would be terribly uncomfortable and less than satisfactory. And that is why we left and didn't bother with it.

My recommendation to improve this place is for the owners to make up their minds about what they want it to be and make it into that. There was even an empty cocktail bar downstairs. So please, either turn it into a restaurant or a bar and serve either restaurant food or pints and bar food as appropriate. At the moment it is just terribly confusing.

Dinner, 13th January 2009

We had high hopes for The Well. We were looking for somewhere that had a bar and also served good food as a possible birthday celebration venue. There was a party of circa 20 people enjoying a dinner at The Well when we were there, but we are not sure that we will follow suit. The Well is a simple, modern “gastropub” – bare wooden floors, raw brick walls, simple wooden tables and homely food. It's probably not a bad local (although there are nicer venues in the area).

I was late and Neil had ordered and started a reasonable bottle of New World red by the time I arrived – soft, fruity Argentinean Malbec: pleasant and reasonably priced but not exceptional. We were sat at a small, somewhat wobbly, wooden table next to the coat stand with a large glass window looking out onto St John Street behind us. The Well is situated on a corner and hence has good light and windows on two sides on the ground floor – we did not explore the basement area. There were a few couples – mainly, by the look of them, young professionals who had popped in for a bite to eat and a large L-shaped table taking up almost half of the ground floor restaurant space, to accommodate a party (again apparently young professionals) for dinner. Cocktails were advertised on a board above the bar (£6.50 each) and the menu looked promising with a few specials on the board. With difficulty Neil ordered the cauliflower and stilton soup (the waiter had a strong accent and an imperfect grasp of English, which made two-way communication difficult) – when it came, his soup was surprisingly bland. I went for the soup special – it was excellent – a delicious and thick pottage of wild mushrooms and Jerusalem artichokes. The bread (brought with balsamic vinegar and good quality olive oil) was pleasant – spongy and fresh. Our main course was disgusting. We both selected the vegetarian option – goats cheese and vegetable in filo pastry served on some dressed salad leaves. The portions were huge – great slabs of goat's cheese on mushy sweet potato and red onion sandwiched between some anaemic filo squares. The filo was very dry/crisp but tasteless. The salad leaves were good but hidden. Thank goodness we ordered some home made chips to go with it – they really were good (especially dipped in the balsamic vinegar from the bread!). Judging by the food served to neighbouring tables, I suspect that the fish is good and the steak looked generous, slightly tough but bearable.